In recent years, a disk player of the type designed to receive a plurality of compact disks in a magazine, feed out a tray carrying a desired one of the disks from the magazine, and reproduce information recorded on the compact disk has been provided.
This type of disk player 70, as shown in FIG. 6, has a magazine reception portion 71 in which a magazine M for receiving the plurality of compact disks piled up therein is inserted, and an information reproducing portion 72 provided adjacently to the magazine reception portion 71 for reproducing information recorded on the desired compact disk d which is carried by a tray t fed out of the magazine M. A tray member 73 having the double purpose of turning the tray t out of the magazine M to feed the compact disk d to the information reproducing portion, and turning the tray t to return the disk d into the magazine M, is provided in the left side of the boundary of the magazine reception portion 71 and the information reproducing portion 72 in the drawing. The tray turning member 73 has two arms extending perpendicularly to each other. These arms are disposed to be opposite to each other as two perpendicular sides in a corner portion of the magazine M. The tray turning member 73 is provided so as to be freely turned by a tray turning mechanism 74 provided in the left side of the information reproducing portion 72 in the drawing.
The tray turning mechanism 74, as shown in FIG. 7, has a reversible driving motor 80. The driving force of the driving motor 80 is transmitted to a rotary gear 82 through a gear mechanism 81. The rotary gear 82 has an arm 83 having its forward end connected to a first lever 84 through a pin 83a. The pin 83a is fitted into an elongated slot 85 formed in the first lever 84. A pin 89 is provided in the rear of the first lever 84 and fitted into an elongated slot 90 formed in a second lever 86. A tensile spring 91 is provided between the first and second levers 84 and 86. A pin 87 is provided at the forward end of the second lever 86 and fitted into an elongated slot 88 of the tray turning member 73. A pin 73c is provided in the rear of the first arm 73a of the tray turning member 73 and a pin 73d is provided in the rear of the second arm 73b thereof. The pin 73c is fitted into an elongated slot 92 provided in a frame not shown, and the pin 73d is fitted into an elongated slot 93.
When the driving motor 80 rotates, the rotary gear 82 rotates. With the rotation of the rotary gear 82, the arm 83 turns within a predetermined range. With the horizontal reciprocating motion of the arm 83 within the predetermined range, the first and second levers also perform a vertical reciprocating motion. With the reciprocating motion of the first and second levers 84 and 86, the tray turning member 73 turns clockwise and counterclockwise within a range of 90 degrees. The tray t in the magazine M is fed out to the information reproducing portion 72 by the counterclockwise turning of the tray turning member 73 in the drawing. On the contrary, the tray t in the information reproducing portion 72 is received into the magazine M by the clockwise turning of the tray turning member 73 in the drawing.
In the aforementioned tray turning mechanism 74, a relatively large quantity of force is required for operating a clicking mechanism provided at a pivotal point 94 between the magazine M and the tray t, and releasing the tray t in an early stage where the desired tray t is fed out of the magazine M. A large load is imposed on the driving motor 80. On the other hand, when the tray t thus fed out turns to a predetermined position and reaches a stopper, the reactive force of the stopper is transmitted into the second lever 86 through the tray and the tray turning member 73 thereby to expand the tensile spring 91. In short, the tensile spring 91 serves to absorb the reactive force imposed on the tray t when the tray reaches the predetermined stop position. Also, after the tray t is fed out into the information reproducing portion 72, the tensile spring 91 is expanded to press the tray t thereby to prevent the tray t from moving further because of influences such as external vibration and the like. Accordingly, a load which is larger than the load imposed on the driving motor 80 in the middle position within the range of turning of the tray t, is imposed on the driving motor 80 again.
In short, a load which is larger than the load imposed on the driving motor 80 in the middle position within the turning range of the tray t is imposed on the driving motor 80 both in an initial position and a final position when the desired tray t is fed out of the magazine M into the information reproducing portion 72. As a result of this larger load, there arises a problem in that not only the size of the driving motor 80 must be enlarged but the tray turning member 73 cannot be turned smoothly.
A second problem is also prevalent with current compact disk players, and such problem is most conveniently described with respect to a mobile compact disk player.
In general, a mobile compact disk player is accommodated in a trunk of a car in which the player is placed in a horizontal or vertical posture (i.e., is mounted flat or standing on edge). As shown in FIG. 10, the conventional compact disk player has a magazine reception portion 141 for holding a magazine which can receive compact disks in a piled-up state therein, and an information reproducing portion 142 provided adjacently to the magazine reception portion for reproducing information of a selected disk supplied form the magazine reception portion. An upward and downward moving mechanism 143 for moving up and down the magazine reception portion 141 is provided on the side face of the disk player 140.
The magazine reception portion 141 has a frame 144 constituted by an upper plate and a lower plate, so that the magazine m is received within the frame 144, the information reproducing portion 142 has a spindle motor 145, a clamper c is provided under the spindle motor 145, and a pickup 146 is provided adjacently to the spindle motor 145 so that the pickup 146 is movable in the direction of a radius of the compact disk d.
The upward and downward moving mechanism 143 for moving up and down the magazine reception portion 141 has an operation plate 147. A gear-shaped portion 148 is provided at one end of the operation plate 147 so that a gear mechanism 149 is engaged with the gear-shaped portion 148. The gear mechanism 149 is rotated by a driving motor 150. An arm 151 is provided on the side of the frame 144 of the magazine reception portion 141 so as to be extended outwardly. A pin 152 is provided in the arm 151 and fitted into a stepping slot 153 formed in the operation plate 147.
A plurality of trays t piled up are received in the magazine m. The aforementioned compact disks d are carried in the trays t, respectively. To feed a compact disk d from the magazine m into the information reproducing portion 142, the magazine reception portion must be moved up and down to adjust a corresponding tray t having the desired compact disk d to an inlet of the information reproducing portion 142. Therefore, the driving motor 150 must be rotated to transmit the driving force of the driving motor 150 to the operation plate 147 through the gear mechanism 149, thereby to move the operation plate 147 so that the pin 152 provided in the arm 151 is moved within the stepping slot 153 in a manner corresponding to the movement of the operation plate 147. Accordingly, the magazine reception portion 141 is moved up and down corresponding to the movement of the pin 152 within the stepping slot.
In the case where the magazine reception portion 141 is moved up, gravity acts as an additional load on the reception portion 141 and the magazine m compared with the case where the reception portion 141 is moved down. Springs 154, 154, 154 and 154 are therefore provided on the upper plate of the frame 144 to reduce such additional gravitational load imposed on the driving motor 150. The upper ends of the respective springs 154 are fixed to a casing ceiling plate 160 of the disk player. The urging force of the springs 154 is established to be substantially equal to the weight of the magazine reception portion and the magazine m.
In the case where the disk player 140 is used in a horizontal posture as shown in FIG. 10, the springs 154 urge the magazine reception position 141 to be pulled up against gravity. In this case, the additional gravitational load imposed on the driving motor 150 is balanced or reduced. However, the mobile compact disk player 140 may be used in a vertical posture (i.e., standing on end) as shown in FIG. 11. In the case where the player is used in a vertical posture, the spring force of the springs 154 is entirely loaded on the driving motor 150 when the magazine reception portion 141 is made to move left in FIG. 11. Therefore, the driving motor 150 must be increased in size.
In short, in the case where the disk player 140 is used in a horizontal posture as shown in FIG. 10, the load imposed on the driving motor 150 is reduced by the weight of the magazine reception portion 141 when the magazine reception portion 141 is made to move down. In the case where the disk player 140 is used in a vertical posture as shown in FIG. 11, the elastic force of the springs 154, however, entirely acts as an additional load when the magazine reception portion is made to move left in the drawing.